The NBA offseason will abound with major team decisions, whether to sign, trade, or keep their players to be competitive in the next few years.
The 2021 free-agent class isn’t as exciting as the previous year’s. Nonetheless, the NBA is at a turning point in handing the baton to the younger players. Young cores lead the majority of the teams in the East and West with two or three players leading the pack.
As such, teams have big decisions to make whether they’ll stick to their cores or use a win-now method to win the championship. Below are three teams that have big decisions to make this offseason.
NBA offseason shakeup for the Blazers
The Trailblazers are finding themselves in an unusual spot this year. They lost Jusuf Nurkic to a gruesome broken leg injury last season, and their fortune remained sour with more injured players this year. There is no doubt that Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum are one of the best backcourt duos in the league.
However, they haven’t had enough mojo to consistently be in the mix of the top teams in the West. They always fall within the fourth to eight spots in the Conference, and a shakeup of their roster may be in the way. Lillard has maintained that he has the utmost loyalty for Trailblazers. Therefore, McCollum could find himself in trade talks this offseason.
San Antonio Spurs and their shaky future
The Spurs are on the brink of losing their hard-earned 22 straight appearances in the Playoffs. They are currently five games outside looking in the Playoffs bubble. Unfortunately, the past few years have been here and there for the franchise. The only remnant left of the late glory days of the Spurs is Patty Mills and Greg Popovich.
Outside of them, they deal with an odd pairing of LaMarcus Aldridge and DeMar DeRozan with a handful of young players. Both Aldridge and DeRozan are superstars in their likes. However, their future and tenure with the Spurs haven’t translated into anything near the success that Duncan, Ginobili, and Parker had.
As such, there could be some changes on the way with the team starting with the Spurs not picking up their team option on DeRozan’s contract.
Jayson Tatum and a max contract extension
The Boston Celtics is expected to go all-in on Jayson Tatum this offseason. Tatum has shown flashes of superstardom this year, and his career-high stats prove it. The next question will be how far he can take his team into the postseason. Kemba Walker could be out for a couple of games, and Tatum will have to fill the void that he’ll leave.
Tatum will have to use this postseason properly so that he can command a supermax contract extension with the Celtics. Nonetheless, he’s still expected to don the green and white jersey no matter what happens.
Image from ESPN/ YouTube thumbnail